2012 marked the fifth year in a row that Cuba had kept its infant mortality rate below 5 per thousand, thanks mainly to the government's free universal health care programs, the news agency said.

According to figures from the Public Health Ministry, the country's infant mortality rate was 4.9 in 2011, 4.5 in 2010, 4.8 in 2009 and 4.7 in 2008.

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The latest infant mortality report from the United Nations Children Fund, released in September 2012, shows that Cuba leads the Western Hemisphere, followed by Canada, the United States, Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay.

3. List of countries by infant mortality rate

This is a list of countries by infant mortality rate. Figures are from the 2011 revision of the United Nations World Population Prospects report, by five years averages, and the CIA World Factbook.

The infant mortality rate (IMR) is the number of deaths of infants under one year old per 1,000 live births. This rate is often used as an indicator of the level of health in a country. The infant mortality rate of the world is 49.4 according to the United Nations and 42.09 according to the CIA World Factbook.

Definition: This entry gives the number of deaths of infants under one year old in a given year per 1,000 live births in the same year; included is the total death rate, and deaths by sex, male and female. This rate is often used as an indicator of the level of health in a country.

The Cuban Literacy Campaign (Spanish: Campaña Nacional de Alfabetización en Cuba) was a year-long effort to abolish illiteracy in Cuba after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. It began on January 1 and ended on December 22, 1961, becoming the world's most ambitious and organized literacy campaign.

Before 1959 the official literacy rate for Cuba was between 60-76%, with educational access in rural areas and a lack of instructors the main determining factor. As a result, the Cuban government of Fidel Castro at Che Guevara's behest dubbed 1961 the "year of education", and sent "literacy brigades" out into the countryside to construct schools, train new educators, and teach the predominately illiterate Guajiros (peasants) to read and write. The campaign was "a remarkable success", and by the completion of the campaign, 707,212 adults were taught to read and write, raising the national literacy rate to 96%.